WILD Partners on Developing Natural Extruder-Stable Colors

WILD has started a cooperation with the Dutch company Extrufood. Thanks to this partnership, WILD is able to simulate how its natural colors will perform within the finished extruded product under industrial conditions.

5/25/2011 --- Food must please the eye as well as the palate. Extruded confectioneries such as licorice or candy rolls are traditionally very colorful. They set high requirements in production, which are very challenging to meet for colors from natural sources. WILD has successfully overcome these technological difficulties and is able to offer natural colors for extruded confectionery.

The demand for food colors from natural sources and coloring foodstuff is rising steadily, influenced by new EU guidelines and discussions about artificial colorants. Since extruded confectioneries are traditionally colorful kid¹s products, they are highly affected by the 2010 warning label for the artificial so called "Southampton Six" colors. However, up to now mostly artificial colors are used in extruded products, because they withstand the extrusion process a lot easier than natural ones.

Driven by market demand, WILD has succeeded in producing colors from natural sources for use in extruded products. Extrusion technology sets high technological requirements for ingredients such as colors: In the extrusion process, the base is evenly pushed or drawn through a die under high pressure and extremely high temperature. Therefore, the colors primarily need to be bakestable and withstand high temperatures.

In addition to these specific requirements, colors from natural sources itself have special properties that have to be taken into consideration during processing. Key parameters here are heat, light, oxygen and pH-value. Natural color applications in extruded products are extremely complex because of these factors and the way they interact with each other.

With its natural extruder-stable colors, WILD is able to cover a spectrum ranging from green to yellow, orange, red and brown. Depending on the color, they withstand temperatures ranging from 80 degree Celsius up to even 135 degree Celsius. Application areas for WILD¹s extruder-stable natural colors include various kinds of extruded confectionery, be it chewing gums or candy rolls. The colors can also be combined with each other, creating for instance products with parti-colored coats which are especially appealing to consumers.

WILD has started a cooperation with the Dutch company Extrufood, which has more than 20 years of expertise in extrusion technology for the confectionery industry. Thanks to this partnership, WILD is able to simulate how its natural colors will perform within the finished extruded product under industrial conditions. The experience of WILD¹s color experts, combined with Extrufood¹s latest extrusion technology, results in brilliant confectionery colors with the highest stability and an efficient coloring of the end product.